cardsfan04 wrote:WTF? I've been a big Armie supporter. But he really (Frank) this one up. I mean, we don't know the details of how this all went down, but on the surface Armie looks really bad.

I don't know. I saw that Boat was asking 4m a year. If that's so, my guess is the KHL offered him a lot of money, he brought that to the Blues to match, and they didn't want to do it.

Just a total guess. As much as I love Boat, 4M per is way too much for him.

Apparently he's going through the offers they made to Sobotka right now with the media. It kinda seems like a move to point the finger at Sobotka. Maybe Sobotka was being unreasonable. I don't know. Kinda odd how this happened. I wasn't expecting it.

Yeah, my first reaction was displeasure with Army. But, it's starting to seem like he didn't really have any good options. I'm disappointed that we signed Berglund and Ott, but not Sobotka. But, there has to be a limit to how much you pay someone. Sounds like Sobotka wanted more than what was reasonable.

He won't be back. Not with us at any rate. Good for KHL offering him that kind of cash.

He's in his prime earning years and he needs this contract to be substantial for his own future. I get where he is coming from, and I can't judge him for his decision.

HOWEVER, signing Ott still makes no sense. There has to be younger, cheaper, faster forwards out there that can fill the same role as Ott. It's just way too much cash for what he brings on any given night.

I still think Army shit the bed signing Ott to a contract at all. I don't care if he scores the cup winning goal next year, it's a bad, bad signing.

I can't stand Ott as a player. Never liked him. He's a dirty cheapshot type of player and I hate the thought of him being on our team for another season. Not to mention the money he is being paid. Sometimes you just shake your head and wonder if ownership / management are watching the same games you are.

It's a shame that Sobotka won't be on the roster this year but you can't blame him for taking more money in his home country and you can't blame Army for not matching that kind of money which I would think is overpaying. If he signs in Russia and misses the Blues winning a cup, he'll never forget that. Never.

I guess I'm in the minority who doesn't think the Ott deal is terrible. I think they overpaid him, but as a player he does what he's supposed to. Everyone was complaining about how wimpy we are without Polak. Well, this does help some with that.

However, the real news here is with Boat. That's a really big kick in the balls. I didn't see that one coming at all.

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So tell me, Armstrong apologists, was this genius? Is he still King Midas?

I have no idea how the decision is made to give contracts to Berglund & Ott-our two least effective forwards last season-and play hardball with Sobotka over, apparently, less than $1M per. Whatever Armstrong says now is impossible to verify but what isn't is that Omsk signed Boat at $4M per. I hope anyone saying $4M for Sobotka is too much was among those howling over the Berglund giveaway. Also, I think $4M is about what he's worth in today's market. See: Pouliot and Bolland. Also consider that Sobotka made $1.3M last year to play second line minutes. And consider that we're giving Ott $2.6M FOR MULTIPLE YEARS. Also there are rumors that the Blues best offer was actually nominally over $3M for 3 years. Also, the Ott deal is a terrible decision on its own. He's done. Even Buffalo didn't want him. Bad planning. We couldn't have signed Richards? For $600K LESS than Ott? For ONE year? WTF? Seriously, WTF? Fail, massive fail. And I guess it means the plug is pulled on Andronov too.

There goes the center depth if our now all-in bet on Lehtera translating fails.

And there goes my enthusiasm. I'm back to "let me know when they make it to the conference finals" mode. One more on the list of effective young players Armstrong has given away for nothing. I definitely would prefer to see Perron, Eller, Nikitin, Bishop and Sobotka in the Blue note than Ott, Berglund, Leopold, Reaves and Lapierre. By the way, Armstrong-Sobotka has grit too but he can also, you know, play hockey unlike Ott, who demonstrably makes the Blues worse when he's on the ice. But what do I know?

I guess I'm in the minority who doesn't think the Ott deal is terrible. I think they overpaid him, but as a player he does what he's supposed to. Everyone was complaining about how wimpy we are without Polak. Well, this does help some with that.

However, the real news here is with Boat. That's a really big kick in the balls. I didn't see that one coming at all.

I don't see the Ott signing as horrible. I think the timing of it makes it seem worse though. It kinda feels like we got Ott instead of Sobotka which makes the Ott signing less favorable.

Sobotka was never going to settle for a 3-4 line center role, and with Lehtera and Stastny coming in as the 1-2 centers, there was no room for him. So good for Boat for finding decent money and hopefully decent minutes to play in KHL. Berglund and Ott can be the 3-4 line centers, with Bumps competing with Lindstrom for the #3 spot. The Blues couldn't get Stastny AND pay Sobotka the same money Omsk offered him, and they probably knew where this was going all along.

So all of this, as much as it pains me to see Boat go, makes sense. They are adding scoring power to the first and second line and retaining cheaper players for 3rd and 4th lines. Yes, we all love Boat's workrate but with new guys coming in he was going to be the odd man out.

I've seen this a few times now. Can anyone back it up with anything other than vague platitudes and assertions of opinion? Anything statistical? Anything about comparable players? McClement signed for $1M for one year in Carolina. You wouldn't rather have him? Or Richards at $2M? (By the way-we could have signed Vanek for $200K more per year than we'll give Berglund and Ott.) Ott is terrible. Signing him reeks of desperation. He's a giveaway machine who takes lots of penalties and never scores. He's no better on faceoffs than Sobotka. Actually, Sobotka was even 8% better at that last season! So great, we'll have a fourth line of Ott-Lapierre-Reaves who will make great money, take penalties and look mean to the opposition but do absolutely nothing else.

Because I don't get it. Apparently, signing the guy who was statistically the worst player in the league last year after we acquired him (-12? WTF?) at above market rate isn't that bad. But Sobotka wanting to make more money than Berglund is greedy. Huh?